During a conference call, voice or media connections are typically made between two or more communication devices such as telephones or mobile phones.
One difficulty with existing systems is that unauthorized participants may attempt to join a conference call. The participants of a conference call are sometimes loosely defined wherein original invitees can forward invitations to others who can then participate. With only rudimentary security procedures such as a conference call dial-in number and access code almost anyone from any location can be a conference call participant, which could compromise security.
For example, in some traditional systems an individual may forward a conference call invite to another if he or she is unable to attend a meeting. However, at the time of the meeting, either person or both people may join the conference call. This could result in larger-than-expected number of participants, which could compromise security. For conference calls which restrict the number of allowed attendees, it would be unclear why there are more people attending than originally scheduled. It may also be difficult to maintain the security of conferences and prevent unauthorized attendees who might participate due to uncontrolled or accidental forwarding of invitations.
Other difficulties with existing teleconferencing systems will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the detailed description below.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.